.TH LOCATE 1 \" -*- nroff -*-
.SH NAME
locate \- list files in databases that match a pattern
.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B locate
[\-d path | \-\-database=path]
[\-e | \-E | \-\-[non\-]existing]
[\-i | \-\-ignore-case]
[\-0 | \-\-null]
[\-c | \-\-count]
[\-w | \-\-wholename]
[\-b | \-\-basename]
[\-l N | \-\-limit=N]
[\-S | \-\-statistics]
[\-r | \-\-regex ]
[\-\-regextype R]
[\-\-max-database-age D]
[\-P | \-H | \-\-nofollow]
[\-L | \-\-follow]
[\-\-version]
[\-A | \-\-all]
[\-p | \-\-print]
[\-\-help]
pattern...
.
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page
documents the GNU version of
.BR locate .
For each given pattern,
.B locate
searches one or more databases of file names and displays the
file names that contain the pattern.  Patterns can contain shell-style
metacharacters: `*', `?', and `[]'.  The metacharacters do not treat
`/' or `.'  specially.  Therefore, a pattern `foo*bar' can match a
file name that contains `foo3/bar', and a pattern `*duck*' can match a
file name that contains `lake/.ducky'.  Patterns that contain
metacharacters should be quoted to protect them from expansion by the
shell.
.P
If a pattern is a plain string \(em it contains no metacharacters \(em
.B locate
displays all file names in the database that contain that string
anywhere.  If a pattern does contain metacharacters,
.B locate
only displays file names that match the pattern exactly.  As a result,
patterns that contain metacharacters should usually begin with a `*',
and will most often end with one as well.  The exceptions are patterns
that are intended to explicitly match the beginning or end of a file
name.
.P
The file name databases contain lists of files that were on the system
when the databases were last updated.  The system administrator can
choose the file name of the default database, the frequency with which
the databases are updated, and the directories for which they contain
entries; see \fBupdatedb\fP(1).
.P
If
.BR locate 's
output is going to a terminal, unusual characters in the output are
escaped in the same way as for the \-print action of the
.B find
command.  If the output is not going to a terminal, file names are
printed exactly as-is.
.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.I "\-0, \-\-null"
Use ASCII NUL as a separator, instead of newline.
.TP
.I "\-A, \-\-all"
Print only names which match all non-option arguments, not those matching
one or more non-option arguments.
.TP
.I "\-b, \-\-basename"
Results are considered to match if the pattern specified matches the
final component of the name of a file as listed in the database.
This final component is usually referred to as the `base name'.
.TP
.I "\-c, \-\-count"
Instead of printing the matched filenames, just print the total
number of matches we found, unless \-\-\fIprint\fP (\-p) is also present.
.TP
.I "\-d \fIpath\fP, \-\-database=\fIpath\fP"
Instead of searching the default file name database, search the file
name databases in \fIpath\fP, which is a colon-separated list of
database file names.  You can also use the environment variable
.B LOCATE_PATH
to set the list of database files to search.
The option overrides the environment variable if both are used.  Empty
elements in the path are taken to be synonyms for the file name of the
default database.
A database can be supplied on stdin, using `\-' as an element
of \fIpath\fP. If more than one element of \fIpath\fP is `\-',
later instances are ignored (and a warning message is printed).
.IP
The file name database format changed starting with GNU
.B find
and
.B locate
version 4.0 to allow machines with different byte orderings to share
the databases.  This version of
.B locate
can automatically recognize and read databases produced for older
versions of GNU
.B locate
or Unix versions of
.B locate
or
.BR find .
Support for the old locate database format will be discontinued in a
future release.
.TP
.I "\-e, \-\-existing"
Only print out such names that currently exist (instead of such names
that existed when the database was created).
Note that this may slow down the program a lot, if there are many matches
in the database.  If you are using this option within a program,
please note that it is possible for the file to be deleted after
.B locate
has checked that it exists, but before you use it.
.TP
.I "\-E, \-\-non\-existing"
Only print out such names that currently do not exist (instead of such names
that existed when the database was created).
Note that this may slow down the program a lot, if there are many matches
in the database.
.TP
.I "\-\-help"
Print a summary of the options to
.B locate
and exit.
.TP
.I "\-i, \-\-ignore-case"
Ignore case distinctions in both the pattern and the file names.
.TP
.I "\-l N, \-\-limit=N"
Limit the number of matches to N.  If a limit is set via this option,
the number of results printed for the \-c option will never be larger
than this number.
.TP
.I "\-L, \-\-follow"
If testing for the existence of files (with the \-e or \-E options),
consider broken symbolic links to be non-existing.   This is the default.
.TP
.I "\-\-max-database-age D"
Normally,
.B locate
will issue a warning message when it searches a database which is more
than 8 days old.  This option changes that value to something other
than 8.  The effect of specifying a negative value is undefined.
.TP
.I "\-m, \-\-mmap"
Accepted but does nothing, for compatibility with BSD
.BR locate .
.TP
.I "\-P, \-H, \-\-nofollow"
If testing for the existence of files (with the \-e or \-E options), treat
broken symbolic links as if they were existing files.  The \-H
form of this option is provided purely for similarity with
.BR find ;
the use of \-P is recommended over \-H.
.TP
.I "\-p, \-\-print"
Print search results when they normally would not, because of the presence
of \-\-statistics (\-S) or \-\-count (\-c).
.TP
.I "\-r, \-\-regex"
The pattern specified on the command line is understood to be a
regular expression, as opposed to a glob pattern.  The Regular
expressions work in the same was as in
.B emacs
except for the fact that "." will match a newline.  GNU
.B find
uses the same regular expressions.
Filenames whose full paths match the specified regular expression are
printed (or, in the case of the \-c option, counted).  If you wish to
anchor your regular expression at the ends of the full path name, then
as is usual with regular expressions, you should use the characters ^
and $ to signify this.
.TP
.I "\-\-regextype R"
Use regular expression dialect R.  Supported dialects
include `findutils-default', `posix-awk', `posix-basic',
`posix-egrep', `posix-extended', `posix-minimal-basic', `awk', `ed',
`egrep', `emacs', `gnu-awk', `grep' and `sed'.  See the Texinfo
documentation for a detailed explanation of these dialects.
.TP
.I "\-s, \-\-stdio"
Accepted but does nothing, for compatibility with BSD
.BR locate .
.TP
.I "\-S, \-\-statistics"
Print various statistics about each locate database and then exit
without performing a search, unless non-option arguments are given.
For compatibility with BSD, \-S is accepted as a synonym
for \-\-statistics.  However, the output of
.B locate \-S
is different for the GNU and BSD implementations of
.BR locate .
.TP
.I "\-\-version"
Print the version number of
.B locate
and exit.
.TP
.I "\-w, \-\-wholename"
Match against the whole name of the file as listed in the database.
This is the default.
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP
.B LOCATE_PATH
Colon-separated list of databases to search.  If the value has a
leading or trailing colon, or has two colons in a row, you may get
results that vary between different versions of
.BR locate .
.
.SH "HISTORY"
The
.B locate
program started life as the BSD fast find program, contributed to BSD
by James A. Woods.  This was described by his paper
.I Finding Files Fast
which was published in Usenix
.IR ;login: ,
Vol 8, No 1, February/March, 1983, pp. 8-10.   When the
.B find
program began to assume a default
.B -print
action if no action was specified, this changed the interpretation of
.B find
.BR pattern .
The BSD developers therefore moved the fast find functionality into
.BR locate .
The GNU implementation of
.B locate
appears to be derived from the same code.
.P
Significant changes to
.B locate
in reverse order:
.TS
tab(|);
LL.
4.3.7 | Byte-order independent support for old database format
4.3.3 | locate \fI\-i\fR supports multi-byte characters correctly
      | Introduced \fI\-\-max_db_age\fR
4.3.2 | Support for the slocate database format
4.2.22| Introduced the \fI\-\-all\fR option
4.2.15| Introduced the \fI\-\-regex\fR option
4.2.14| Introduced options \fI\-L, \-P, \-H\fR
4.2.12| Empty items in \fBLOCATE_PATH\fR now indicate the default database
4.2.11| Introduced the \fI\-\-statistics\fR option
4.2.4 | Introduced \fI\-\-count\fR and \fI\-\-limit\fR
4.2.0 | Glob characters cause matching against the whole file name
4.0   | Introduced the LOCATE02 database format
3.7   | Locate can search multiple databases
.TE
.
.SH "BUGS"
The
.B locate
database correctly handles filenames containing newlines,
but only if the system's sort command has a working
.I \-z
option.  If you suspect that
.B locate
may need to return filenames containing newlines, consider using its
.I \-\-null
option.
.
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
GNU findutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/#get-help>
.br
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>
.PP
Report any other issue via the form at the GNU Savannah bug tracker:
.RS
<https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=findutils>
.RE
General topics about the GNU findutils package are discussed at the
.I bug\-findutils
mailing list:
.RS
<https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-findutils>
.RE
.
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 1994\(en2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
.br
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR find (1),
.BR updatedb (1),
.BR xargs (1),
.BR glob (3),
.BR locatedb (5)
.PP
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/findutils/locate>
.br
or available locally via:
.B info locate
